Menopause is officially defined as beginning twelve months after a woman’s last period. At this point a woman is no longer fertile, and she is at once considered post-menopausal. Therefore menopause is more accurately understood as the transition from fertility to infertility, what many women call ‘going through menopause.’

Perimenopause (or pre-menopause) begins when a woman's ovaries begin to produce less estrogen progesterone, and testosterone. The process begins as fertility starts to decline, for most women this happens in your late thirties. This change in hormone levels that your body is producing happens gradually, sometimes taking over ten years.

The most famous symptoms of peri- and menopause are the hot flashes, night sweats, and moodiness. Now that most women live long enough to go through menopause, hot flashes are an experience that most people today are familiar with and understanding of. How and when they affect women varies; for some hot flashes feel like a warm blush, and for others hot flashes can be so strong that you have to pull off of the road, or wake up out of a dead sleep (these, incidentally, are called night sweats). Hot flashes can last anywhere from thirty seconds to five minutes. Frequency also varies among women, but one thing is for certain: hot flashes are not a post-menopausal reality; this is only a symptom of the transitional period out of fertility.

One of the first signs of decreased hormone production is changes in the menstrual cycle. These changes vary greatly from person to person, and so it can be hard to attribute the change to perimenopause except in conjunction with other symptoms. Some women experience a heavier period during this time and others a lighter. Some women experience their periods more frequently, and others with less frequent. Some women begin to spot in between periods, and other women begin missing periods. Again, this is due to the fluctuating levels or hormones that need balancing - exactly what Estroleve works to do.